Novel waveguide design for high brightness optoelectronic applications

We describe a novel compound ridge waveguide in which the highest order propagating mode is guided in the low index region of the structure and exhibits a narrow single lobe. For a prototype AlGaAs/GaAs was waveguide designed for operation at = 980 nm we show that due to the narrow lobed emission this mode produces significant improvements in source brightness and hence fibre coupling efficiency. In the case of a 61 m aperture laser diode operating in this mode 20% coupling efficiency is predicted between a structure and standard single mode fibre designed for = 980 nm operation.